Around the Grounds: Trial Results

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Wests Tigers have closed out their 2015 pre-season with an impressive 22-8 victory against the Cronulla Sharks at Campbelltown Sports Stadum on Saturday night — running in 22 unanswered second-half points to secure the win.

The win continues the Club’s strong trial form following a 22-4 win over Parramatta Eels in Alice Springs last weekend, and will give Coach Jason Taylor plenty of confidence heading into his side’s first NRL game of the year, where they will take on the Gold Coast Titans on March 7.

The NRL trial win also capped off an impressive weekend of football for the Club in all grades, with NYC and NSW Cup both recording come-from-behind wins at Campbelltown — building on their respective victories too from last weekend against the Panthers and Eels respectively.

Read on for the full Around the Grounds report from all three grades, and for all the details from other trial matches in the NRL and World Cup Challenge this weekend.

Headlined by the return of James Tedesco from injury, Wests Tigers produced a strong second-half comeback to take down the Sharks, who led 8-0 at the break thanks to a double from fullback Michael Gordon. Tim Simona got the comeback started with a 90m intercept try in the 50th minute, before Tedesco produced a stunning chip-and-chase try soon after to give the hosts the lead. Dene Halatau and Delouise Hoeter added tries late in the piece to seal the victory for Wests Tigers — an solid result given the caliber of players playing for both teams.

After a scrappy opening half filled with handling errors and a controversial sin-bin, Cronulla held a 12-4 lead at the break before Wests Tigers ran in 24 unanswered second-half points to record the win. Te Maire Martin, Eli Levido and Jacob Liddle all scored and created tries in the second half as seven different players got on the scoresheet from Brett Kimmorley’s side.

Down 22-6 at half-time, Wests Tigers’ NSW Cup side continued a similar trend across the day at Campbelltown Stadium as they too posted a strong second half comeback to record a 36-22 win over the Newtown Jets. New recruit Josh Drinkwater again delivered a strong performance — registering four try-assists and five goals — while fullback Kurtis Rowe added two tries in his first game back for the Club since an ankle injury he sustained before Christmas.